PORTLAND, Ore.—A former employee of the Jacklin Seed Company has been charged with wire fraud in a scheme that defrauded the J.R. Simplot Company and Jacklin, its former subsidiary.
A federal criminal information charges Richard Dunham, 64, a resident of Hayden Lake, Idaho, with two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
According to court documents, the J.R. Simplot Company, a major privately held supplier of agricultural products headquartered in Boise, Idaho, owned and operated Jacklin from 1997 until its sale in 2020. Much of Jacklin’s business operations, including a seed-blending and warehousing facility, were located in and around Albany, Oregon.
Dunham, who supervised Jacklin’s Albany operations, had the authority to purchase grass seed from certain Oregon growers over others.
Between 2013 and 2015, Dunham and Jacklin general manager Christopher Claypool, 53, of Spokane, Washington, realized that growers’ preference for higher-yield grasses was creating substantial shortages of lower-yield varieties Jacklin had contracted to deliver to its customers.
Dunham and Claypool directed Jacklin employees to fulfill customer orders with different varieties of grass seed than the customers had ordered, to conceal such substitutions from the customers, and to invoice the customers as though no substitutions had taken place. Together, they referred to this scheme as “getting creative.”
As a result of this scheme, Simplot refunded or credited more than $1.5 million to defrauded buyers. Dunham also engaged in another scheme while employed with Jacklin, conspiring with Gregory McCarthy, the owner of Ground Zero Seeds, to receive kickbacks for grass seed purchased by Jacklin. Between April 2015 and September 2019, Ground Zero paid Dunham more than $191,789.
Dunham and McCarthy regularly corresponded by email, referring to Ground Zero’s kickbacks to Dunham as “shoes” or contributions to his “shoe fund.”
Dunham is a resident of Hayden Lake, Idaho, and was charged by federal criminal information with two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Defendant:
Richard Dunham
Criminal Charges:
Two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud
City and State:
PORTLAND, Ore.
Date:
Not Specified
Sentence or Outcome:
Not Specified, currently charged
Dollar Amounts:
$1.5 million in refunds or credits
$191,789 in kickbacks
Related Federal Cases
Key Facts
- State: Oregon
- Category: White Collar Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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